Pages

Friday, November 9, 2012

Outside of Gotham, 11/09/2012

Haven't had to do one of these in awhile, since none of the covered books were too Batman heavy, but Damian is in this soooo... let's get it over with!

Worlds' Finest #6

So, the basic rundown of this story is, Helena tries to jack a couple of million from the Wayne bank accounts, Damian finds out, they start fighting. While fighting, Damian starts to feel as if Helena is somewhat familiar, and finds out that she isn't the one who is stealing even more from the Wayne accounts. Elsewhere, Power Girl puts something on some satellite, her costume is torn to shreds and she ends up naked, again, she looks for Apokolips energy, something from a boom tube destroys the device on a satellite, then she goes to intervene between Helena and Damian, leaving Helena about to tell him their story.

So, what are my thoughts? It still sucks! The book remains to be a complete mess that is just plain weird at times. Before I go any further, I have to ask, why the hell does Power Girl's costume have to be destroyed every issue?! When it was first torn up, it was a nice little humorous nod to the boob window, but now she literally ends up naked in every fucking issue! It's not funny, it's not clever, and I'm not complaining about this from a comics objectifying women point of view, I'm complaining about it because it's just weird and pointless. If they're going anywhere with it, it needs to be a "well this costume fucking sucks, it can't stay together, lets get a new one that conveniently doesn't look like ass."

Anyways, back to the bulk of the issue, Helena and Damian... Let's start off with a good point, Levitz gets Damian's voice right, at times. I'll give the book that. Everything else? Pretty boring. It's just fight fight fight, "YOU SEEM FAMILIAR!" fight fight fight, Power Girl shows up, kicks Damian, then it's a "let's work together" ending. I guess the real plot is to find out who is stealing even more from the Wayne Bank account, but being that the next cover features what looks to be a werewolf, I'm not too optimistic about it.

The art... I think Perez's stuff looked a little better with Sandra Hope inking, but eh, it's still not working for me, and my enjoyment of Kevin Maguire's stuff is literally panel to panel... Some of it looks good, then there are panels where Helena looks like an inflatable sex doll with her facial expression, and the panel of Power Girl kicking Damian looks like he's getting a very unfriendly welcome from a Proctologist.

All in all, this book... just ugh. Fuck it. Next issue is my last until a new writer comes on, if ever. It's just not getting any better.

Zach, the Huntress character herself isn't the problem. Do not mistake the bad creative decisions on behalf of the writer (which haven't been working in favour of either heroine) as evidence that Helena Wayne is a defective character. What Helena actually needs is a new writer who actually understands the characters of Bruce and Selina (which no one who has worked on the Catwoman book has been able to demonstrate) and how their influence would mould Helena into the woman she becomes as an adult. Under a much better writer, her character would be much better written.

The same is true for Power Girl, whose character is ironically being butchered by the same guy who helped establish the personality of the Power Girl we knew and loved in the previous two continuities she appeared in. Why Paul Levitz thought it was a good idea to go to great lengths to regress both his own character and a character he helped establish in previous continuities is one that has boggled the minds of pretty much every Huntress (Wayne) and Power Girl fan that has been following this book.

If your own protagonist is coming off as a completely daft heroine to the point of getting her own arse handed to her by another character of a similar upbringing, and on top of that, the doppelgänger of your other protagonist is able fly and fight through anything without losing her clothes in the process, you are doing something wrong as a writer.

Yeah, this book needs help. 'BADLY' as you said. It needs a new writer more than anything else.

Ah, I see what you mean. I just never have really known of Helena Wayne before this series. So, in comparison to the Huntress I knew this falls well below subpar. I can easily see a new writer developing the situation with PG and Helena on Earth Prime into a better and more compelling read while expanding their character.

I just continue to hope for Amanda Connor with Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray to hop on this series. It screams for their comedic touch.

Unfortunately, Amanda isn't really a monthly type person anymore. But in fantasy land, I'd love the old PG team to take over, but at the same time, I would hope they'd go in a little bit of a different direction, no need to try and recreate something.

Realistically, I'd enjoy ANY writer other than Levitz at this point... minus Ann Nocenti who seems to keep getting work despite no one really liking anything she's written so far... but in terms of an artist, I'd love to see Sami Basri take this on.